Father Newly Diagnosed With Kidney Cancer

kw2807

Posts: 1
Joined: Dec 2005

Dec 02, 2005 - 12:54 pm

Hi

My 74yo father has just undergone testing for lung cancer (blood test, sputum cytology, bronchoscopy w/biopsy, ct scan) due to an abnormal chest x-ray which resulted from a chronic cough (he has previously suffered from TB, many years ago btw). He was called in to the hospital today to meet with his consultant.

The bronchoscopy and sputum cytology show nothing except for 2 infections (although we have to wait about another 4 weeks for the TB results). However, the CT scan showed a large tumour in one of his kidneys.

This has blown us all out of the water as we were preparing for the worst news regarding lung cancer, and it turns out that he has kidney cancer which is totally unexpected.

He has to go back on this coming Tuesday when his new urologist plus other consultants (he is in the UK btw) hold a meeting to discuss his case in detail and decide the best course of action. Right now, they are talking about removing the kidney followed with a course of chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

At this time, they don't know if the spot on the lung is a spread of the kidney cancer or whether it is something different. Right now, the doctors seem to be much more focused on the kidney than the lung.

The doctor told my Sister who was with them (I am about 6000 miles away) that, at the moment, they are thinking they are going to be very aggressive with treating this. My Dad, although elderly and not in the best of health, is really brave with a very positive attitude and is ready to battle this.

I am frantic. Is there hope even if the spot on the lung does turn out to be secondary cancer ?

I've heard of cases where people had more than one unrelated cancer. I guess it all depends on what kind of cancer your dad has in the kidney, and whether the spot on the lung is also cancer.

Removal of the kidney sounds right in any case. The worst kidney cancer, but unfortunately the most common, is renal cell. If it is renal cell, then the radiation and chemotherapy may be fairly useless. Renal cell doesn't respond much to either.

They will have to determine what the spot on the lung is. Any spread of kidney cancer outside of the kidney is very serious, if that is what it is.

If the spot on the lung is not cancer, or not a metastasis from the kidney cancer, the surgery alone could take care of the kidney cancer.

I can understand how alarmed and shocked you and your family must feel. The same thing happened to my dad 2 years ago. He went to the hospital thinking that he had benign prostatic hyperplasia (a common condition affection most >50 men) when it turned out to be more serious: a 17 cm tumor that had pretty much taken over his left kidney.

Obviously with primary kidney cancers, removing the affected organ (the kidney) is the first line of treatment. That is what they did in my dad's case. What they did NOT do, is give him adjuvant therapy (a "just in case" therapy after surgery) in case the tumor would come back. So they did not offer him any chemo, radiation, biological therapy, hormone therapy, clinical trials, etc. Why, to this day, I don't know. Perhaps because it is not really indicated for kidney cancer. Perhaps because the tumor did not spread. Nonetheless, 3 months later my dad's tumor came back, this time more aggressive than ever, and he died, 11 months later.

So in your dad's case, I would URGE the docs to do some kind of therapy on him after theapy. At lease it can try & wipe out the spot in the lung (if it is cancerous) and prevent any recurrent kidney cancer, which is even more difficult to treat. There is a new drug out from the BAYER company that has done woners in Germany, and parts of the U.S.A, since it is not FDA approved. You should inquire about this. I tried to get my dad on this drug, but the chemo he was on ruined his body so much that he was no longer eligible for this drug's treatment program. I'd bet my $$ on that drug. Good luck. It is a fight, no doubt, but keep up the positive thinking.

Hello Kerry,
I am going to add a rather new treatment to the mix. I am now almost 5 years out with renal cell. I was a stage 2, with no sperad. Then came the awlful news that I had a new growth near the liver. Then a year later a tumor on the liver, then a tumor on the t12 spine. I have had 3 major surgerys in 4 years.
I now have a tumor in my only adrenal gland, it is renal cell. Now the good news, I am having my second radiowave oblation done with this tumor, the first was on my spine in Aug and have no return of the cancer in that area. I have read they have done tumors of the lung with RFB and have been very sucessfull. There is always something new coming out.
God bless,
Mark

what is metastasis
My dad had kidney cancer 3 years ago and the cancer was contained and had his kiney removed

he now has a 3 cm area on his left lower lobe and the doctors want to do the lung sergery to remove, they said if they do a biopsy it wont prove if its cancer, they need to remove it. It is not a circle its just not a particular shape and it has grown since 07. my dad is 75, i was told the sergery is a major surgery. They thought it could be a scar but it has grown .

I remember his kidney doctor did say you could get spots in your lung after removing the kidney or get lung cancer , was wondering what metastis is and would that grow?
Any suggestions

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